Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Tessica thought she’d cried herself out over the past ten days, but her eyes blurred with new tears. She stared at her copy of Fiona’s will that the lawyer had handed her, but reading it seemed impossible. She never imagined Fiona would have left anything to her, let alone the entire business. But then, over the years, they’d shared their love of animals, and more specifically the joy they felt when they found a forever home for one of the strays. Neither of them had husbands, children, or pets still at home, so they funneled all of their love and energy into the strays.
“Excuse me,” she whispered as she stood up and walked out the door. She rushed down the hall to the bathroom, went into one of the stalls, and pulled some toilet paper off a roll to wipe her eyes.
“Tessica?” Erin’s voice called.
Tessica opened the stall door to see her best friend’s concerned expression.
“Are you okay?”
Tessica nodded, as more tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Hey now.” Erin pulled her into a hug. “None of that. I told myself I wouldn’t cry today, and you know I cry when you cry.” Her voice cracked on the last word.
“Sorry.” Tessica hugged Erin tight and let go. She pulled some more toilet paper off the roll, handed the wad to Erin, and got more for herself.
Once they’d calmed down and made themselves presentable, Erin said, “Ready to go back?”
“Do you think Connor hates me now?”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not. It’s not your fault Mom was a sucker for every animal she ever met.”
“I guess,” Tessica agreed, but she doubted she’d be happy if she was in Connor’s shoes.
“Come on.” Erin gently put an arm around Tessica’s shoulders and led them out of the bathroom.
“Have I told you how happy I am that you’re back in town, even if the circumstances suck?”
Erin gave her a little squeeze as they walked back into the conference room.
Connor was busy reading and didn’t look up.
Half an hour later, as the meeting wound down, Tessica got up to leave. Connor moved to face her.
“I’d like to stop by the shelter tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss our options and make some decisions.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“What time works for you?”
“Five-thirty?” she suggested. “I feed the animals right before I go, so they’ll all be settled for the night.”
“Five-thirty works for me. I could bring dinner,” he offered. “Pizza? Chinese?”
Tessica smiled at the gesture. Maybe he didn’t hate her after all. “Dinner sounds great. Chang’s Palace is right around the corner, and their pork chow mien is good.”
“Chinese it is. See you tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She checked the time on her phone. “I really have to go. The animals are waiting.”
He nodded and opened the conference room door for her.
The next evening at Fiona’s house, Tessica had just opened a can of cat food when Connor walked through the front door holding a large bag of takeout.
“Is it five-thirty already?” She glanced at the clock. “Sorry I’m running a bit late. Someone stopped by right at four-thirty, but they adopted a cat, so that’s a plus.”
Connor set the bag on the counter. “No problem. Anything I can do to help?”
“Oh, you don’t have to?—”
“I want to.” He smiled. “I won’t start dinner without you, so the quicker we get it finished, the quicker we eat.”
“Okay, thanks.” She put a spoonful of the canned cat food in a bowl along with a scoop of kibble and handed it to him. “You can feed Butch. He’s the big orange cat in cage three.”
He nodded and took the bowl.
While he did that, she dished up two more bowls. She put the food away under the counter before she picked up the last two meals.
When she turned, bowls in hand, she noticed Connor holding Butch and rubbing the cat’s ears. Her eyes opened wide when she realized Butch was purring. She walked over and stared. “You must have the magic touch.”
“Magic touch?” Connor asked.
“Butch hates everyone.” Tessica opened cage eight and set both bowls in for two juvenile cats who were brothers.
When she stood up, she noticed Connor’s frown.
“I find that hard to believe.” He looked into the cat’s eyes, and Butch butted his head against Connor’s hand for more attention.
Tessica gestured to Butch’s untouched bowl of food. “He wants your attention more than he wants to eat. He’s shunned every other person we’ve shown him to. He shows me nothing but disdain, and I’m the one who feeds him.”
“Is that true?” Connor asked Butch.
Butch continued to purr loudly and blinked at him once.
Connor looked at Tessica with sincerity. “He says that’s slander, and he’d like to call his lawyer.”
The joke caught her off guard, and Tessica burst out laughing. Back when they were teens, she and Erin used to joke that Connor was born without his funny bone, so hearing an actual joke come out of him was a surprise.
While she tried to get herself under control, Connor put Butch back in his cage, and closed the latch.
“Ready to eat?” he asked.
She nodded as she caught her breath.
Five minutes later, they sat upstairs at Fiona’s kitchen table with plates of Chinese food in front of them.
“Mm,” Tessica hummed in appreciation after taking the first bite.
Connor took one too, and nodded. “You’re right. It’s good.”
They ate in silence for a few moments before Tessica brought up the inevitable. “I suppose we should talk about the shelter.”
Connor nodded. “I suppose we should.”
“Have you made any decisions?” she asked.
“Have you?” he countered.
“I’d like to stay open and continue to work here for the five years.”
“At an unprofitable business?”
“I’ll make it profitable.”
He appeared skeptical. “How do you plan to do that?”
She shook her head. “I answered your question, now you answer mine. Have you made any decisions?”
“I’d like to sell.”
Tessica’s stomach sank. She set her fork down. “Okay. Why?”
“I’d like to use the money from the sale to set up college funds for both of my granddaughters.”
“But then you only get half the money from the sale.”
Connor shrugged. “I’m okay with that. The work you do was important to Mom. If we sell, you can take your half and open a new shelter in a better location.”
Tessica frowned. “But it’s your Mom’s house. Don’t you want to keep it in the family?”
“Since the house was renovated, it doesn’t really hold any sentimental value for me. And besides, I don’t have the time or energy to deal with a failing business for five years.”
“I get that. Neither do I.” She leaned forward. “That’s why I have to make it profitable.”
“I’m not sure how you plan to do that when my mom ran it for ten years without a profit.”
Tessica picked her fork back up. “Fiona never tried to make it profitable because she didn’t care. She had plenty of money to subsidize the business as long as it was close to breaking even.”
Connor sighed. “I don’t want to give you false hope if I’m going to sell it anyway.”
They were quiet for a few moments before Tessica said, “Have you ever thought about moving back here? Your grandkids are getting older, and you’re missing out on their childhoods.”
He scowled. “You sound like my mother.”
Her cheeks heated up. She couldn’t help being motherly in all aspects of her life. It came naturally to her, and normally she wouldn’t think twice about it. But Connor’s tone made it clear he thought she’d overstepped. Maybe she had. Sometimes her inner Mommy came out, even when she wasn’t at a club or in a scene. On the flip side, her inner Little never made an appearance accidentally.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just know I would do everything in my power to be near my grandchildren, if I had any.”
“I can’t say I’ve never considered it,” Connor admitted. “Especially now that Michael and I are getting along better.”
Tessica nodded. “It’s easier to get along with your kids once they’re adults. Some of those teen years were pretty rough with my boys.”
“I can’t imagine having twins. One was hard enough.”
She chuckled. “Your sisters are twins.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t have to raise them. You’re a twin, too, right?”
“That’s right. That’s how Erin and I became friends back in high school. Your sisters were the only other set of twins in our freshman class.”
“Did being a twin make it easier for you to raise twins? Having an inside look?”
“I don’t think so. But who knows? Maybe it was easier, and I didn’t realize it.”
After a short pause Connor said, “It would be nice to see my grandkids more. But my whole life is in Juneau.”
“I get that. It’s hard to make a big change like that once we get older and set in our ways. Getting divorced forced me to move eight years ago. Otherwise I’d still be living in the same house. But honestly, I’m so much happier now. I’m glad I had to move.”
Connor nodded and put a bite of food in his mouth.
“Give me two months to make it profitable. If I can’t, then I won’t complain when you sell.”
“It’s not about the money, it’s the house. If no one lives up here, it’s just wasted space. And I absolutely don’t want to deal with renters.”
“If things go well, I could expand the shelter to the upstairs. Maybe even pay you a small rent.”
Connor sighed. “Do you really think you can make it profitable in two months?”
Tessica perked up and nodded. “I do.”
“How?”
“Number one, online advertisements. This house is on a residential street, so not a ton of people drive by. The shelter needs a new and improved website. I need an easy way to upload images and info on every animal we have up for adoption. Something I can update every day without too much technical know-how.”
“That sounds expensive.”
She shook her head. “My son Zach does website design. He’ll do it for free. He revamped my freelance accounting website last year, and now I have so many clients, I have to refer them to friends.”
Connor swallowed before he replied. “I’ll admit that’s a good idea. Do you think it will be enough?”
“Probably not, but that’s not my only idea. I plan to rearrange the downstairs. I’ll move the front counter back to make more room in the lobby. Then I’m going to put up shelves so I can sell some of the basic stuff that people need when they get a new pet. Things like kibble, food bowls, leashes, litter boxes, and toys.”
“I can see where someone would probably buy a few essentials from you to get their new animal settled at home before going to the pet store.”
Tessica nodded. “I think that alone will cover the amount your mom lost each month.”
“Didn’t you say it was around a hundred a month?” He sounded skeptical.
Tessica gave him a patronizing smile. “Yes, but no matter how many times I told your mother to charge for it, she always gave people free food for their new pets. And not just a can either, like an entire bag of kibble and a six pack of cans to start them off. Not to mention leashes for every dog.”
“Oh.” Connor shook his head. “Well then, that might just do it.”
“The other thing I’m going to do is advertise for volunteers at all the local high schools. You’d be surprised how many kids want to do volunteer work. Especially the kids who want to get into college. Volunteer work looks really good on a college application.”
Connor finished his last bite of dinner and pushed his plate away. “All right, you’ve convinced me. I can wait two months. I’ll see if the airline can schedule me to pilot some flights to Portland. If not, I can probably get a jump seat on a friend’s flight. Either way, I’ll be sure to be in Portland about once a week so I can check in on your progress and see how you’re doing.”
Tessica’s cheeks grew warm at the idea of him checking in on her. It seemed like such a Daddy Dom thing to do. “Okay,” she agreed softly, as she ate the last of her pork chow mien. She reached a hand toward his plate. “All done?”
“You don’t have to clean up.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” she assured him as she picked up his plate along with her own. She took them to the sink, and turned on the water to wash them. Chores were Tessica’s go-to response when a discussion became stressful or uncomfortable. Menial labor had forestalled many an argument with her ex over the years.
As she waited for the water to warm up, Connor stepped up beside her, making it impossible to ignore him. She gave him a small frown, but he didn’t notice.
“I’ll dry,” he said.
She shook her head. “You don’t?—”
“I’ll dry,” he said firmly.
“Oh…” She focused back on the water, and hoped he wouldn’t notice her flushed face. “Okay.”
She washed the dishes and waited for him to continue their conversation, but he didn’t. He simply dried each dish and put it away. They worked together in awkward silence until everything was done.
When they were finished, Connor gestured to the takeout containers that still had food in them. “Would you like to take the leftovers home?”
“You don’t want them?”
He shook his head. “I’m having dinner with Michael tomorrow night, and then I fly home on Thursday afternoon.”
“In that case, I’d be happy to take them.” She went and closed the white takeout boxes and gestured to the two fortune cookies left on the table. “Want one?”
“No thanks. I don’t like them.”
“You don’t like them?” Tessica repeated incredulously. “Who doesn’t like fortune cookies? You get a sugary treat and a fortune at the same time.”
“I like the fortune part, but the cookie itself is unpleasant in my opinion. If I want a sugary treat, I’ll go for lemon meringue or key lime pie.”
She picked up one of the cookies and held it out to him. “You open this one, and I’ll eat the cookie.”
Chuckling, Connor took the cookie from her. He broke it open, took out the paper, and handed her the crumbled cookie bits. “Did you rig this?” he asked suspiciously.
“Rig it?” She put some bits of cookie in her mouth.
Connor read his fortune aloud. “An exciting business opportunity lies ahead of you.”
Tessica laughed. “I promise I didn’t rig it, but it sounds like the fates have aligned in my favor.” She popped the rest of his cookie into her mouth and eagerly cracked open hers. She read it and scoffed. “Well that proves that it’s not rigged. Mine says, ‘You will be happy with your spouse.’ I’m pretty sure my divorce proves that one wrong.”
“Or, they could be talking about a future spouse,” Connor suggested.
Tessica scoffed again. “Not likely at my age.” She tossed her fortune in the trash, and changed the subject. “I should go check on the animals once more before I go home. Did you want to stay here for a while? Look through things?”
“I’ll follow you down.” He put on his coat.
“You sure?”
He shook his head and said softly, “I know I should go through her things, but… I don’t think I’m ready. Erin and Hannah will finish sorting tomorrow. They’ll make sure everyone receives the items Mom wanted them to have.”
Tessica picked up the takeout boxes, and put a hand on Connor’s shoulder. “It’s okay if you’re not ready. No one thinks less of you for it.”
“Thanks.” His voice was husky with emotion. He broke eye contact, turned off the kitchen light, and headed toward the stairs.
She followed him down, wishing there was more she could say or do to help.